


Don't Break My Heart

by fizzygingr



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Shiro (voltron) plays guitar, Sing-alongs, Team Voltron Family, gonna make your fuckin teeth fall out, no one is sad, shameless self-indulgent fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-07
Updated: 2019-03-07
Packaged: 2019-11-13 11:32:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18030926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fizzygingr/pseuds/fizzygingr
Summary: The kiddos find an earth guitar and all have a sing-along. Pure fluff.





	Don't Break My Heart

“This...this is Space Christmas!” Lance exclaimed, pulling open the sack of gifts that the residents of a small agricultural moon had thrown together for them as a thank-you. “I have never seen this many presents in my  _ life. _ ” He began to pull out objects at random, sliding them across the floor to various teammates.

 

Hunk picked up something about three feet tall that looked terrifyingly like the animatronics at a Chuck E. Cheese, except that the animal was nothing recognizable from Earth.

 

“Yeah, so this thing is, uh...staring into my soul,” he said. He turned it around and pried open a panel on the back. “Looks like I can  _ definitely  _ pull some parts out of it, though.”

 

“Hunk!” said Lance, looking like he’d been personally insulted, “how could you scrap this adorable...chicken...rodent...thing?” He scooched closer, pouting at him. “You pull out the parts...and you pull out the  _ heart. _ ”

 

Hunk shoved it at him. “You want it, buddy? ‘Cause it’s all yours.”

 

“If that thing shows up outside anybody’s door in the morning, then it’s going out the airlock,” said Shiro, not looking up from where he was disentangling an enormous ball of very soft yarn.

 

“What, you think it’s haunted?” Keith asked him.

 

“No.” Shiro looked over at Lance, who put a hand over his heart in mock offense.

 

“Wait” said Pidge, pulling something lurid and pink out of the pile. “Lance can keep whatever the heck that is...but who’s going to wear this onesie?” She held it up, then squinted at each of her teammates in turn before shrugging and pulling it on over her clothes. It fit perfectly.

 

Allura, meanwhile, was examining something large and wooden with fascination. “Coran,” she asked, “do you think this is their culture’s version of a flabbax?”

 

Coran walked over and picked it up to get a closer look. “No, not a flabbax,” he said. “If anything, the curvature reminds me more of a quarbok, but a quarbok would be much taller.”

 

“Wait a second,” said Hunk, coming closer without taking off the wide-brimmed hat he’d been trying on. “I think that’s a guitar.”

 

“Is that something from your planet?” Allura asked.

 

“What’s from our planet?” said Lance. Everyone started moving closer, eager to see a reminder of home. “Yeah, that’s a guitar.”

 

“What, like an Earth guitar?” asked Pidge.

 

“Definitely an Earth guitar,” said Keith. “That’s a Fender.”

 

“Oh, I didn’t realize Keith was Mr. Guitar Expert-”

 

“Lance, it says Fender on it. Right here.”

 

“I wonder if we could tune it,” Shiro suggested, coming up behind them. He reached out with his natural hand and gently plucked the strings, then hummed in pleasant surprise. “It’s most of the way there already.”

 

“You play, Shiro?” Pidge asked.

 

Shiro laughed, taking the guitar from Coran and sitting down to finish tuning it. “Badly,” he said.

 

“You’re not  _ bad _ -” Keith started to argue, but Shiro held up a hand.

 

“It’s not false modesty, Keith, I know what I’m good at. It was never my goal to be a world-class musician, just to learn the chords well enough to fudge my way through most songs.”

 

“Aaaand?” said Lance.

 

“And what?” He tapped the strings very gently with his metal fingers, then smiled when they offered him the feedback he needed in return.

 

“Did you learn the chords?”

 

“Yeah.” He frowned slightly as he adjusted the knobs. “I used to play back at the Garrison to blow off steam.”

 

“Oh, Shiro,” said Hunk, shaking his head. “You should not have said that.” Behind him, Lance and Pidge were looking at each other with glee.

 

“What are you gonna play for us?” Pidge asked, sidling up close to his face.

 

“Yeah, you gotta show us what you know.” Lance was on his other side now, pressed up even closer.

 

“Sing-along?”

 

“Sing-along.”

 

“For team-building.”

 

“Right. Very important.”

 

“I, for one,” Coran interrupted, somehow squeezing himself into this configuration, “would love to hear a song from your world. If you wouldn’t mind, Shiro.” His eyes softened a bit, and he added, “It can be the perfect antidote for homesickness, you know.”

 

There was no saying no to that now. Shiro sighed, putting on a good show of resignation. “Only if we hear one of yours in return,” he told Coran.

 

“Of course.”

 

“All right, then.”

 

Lance and Pidge cheered, and everybody took their positions around Shiro on the floor. Positioning his fingers in a basic C Major chord, Shiro lifted his other hand dramatically and brought it down to strum—

And everyone winced as his metal hand grated harshly against the strings and made a horrible shrieking sound.

 

“Um,” said Shiro. “Yeah, I...probably need to start using a pick now.”

 

“On it!” said Pidge. She ran over to the corner where her backpack was, and returned a moment later with something in her hand.

 

“Library card,” she explained. “I had it with me when we left, but it’s not really much use out here. Keith, you got your knife?”

 

“Right here.” Pidge tossed him the card, which he sliced into a roughly triangular shape and rounded off the edges before handing to Shiro.

 

He tried strumming again with the pick; it came out a little clang-y, but certainly not unpleasant to listen to.

 

Fingers poised, he looked around and then said, completely deadpan: “Anyway, here’s Wonderwall.”

 

“Shiroooo,” Lance groaned. “Don’t make me regret this.”

 

“I’m kidding, Lance,” he said. He paused for a second to think, then started to play and sing:

 

_ Why do you build me up, _

_ Buttercup, baby, _

_ Just to let me down, _

_ And mess me around? _

 

The other paladins beamed, and then started to echo back the lines, shouting more than singing:

 

_ And then worst of all (WORST OF ALL!) _

_ You never call, baby, _

_ When you say you will (SAY YOU WILL!) _

_ But I love you still! _

 

Allura and Coran seemed to be picking up on it quickly enough. With encouragement from the others, they joined in, and the echoes grew louder:

 

_ I need you  _ **_(I NEED YOU!)_ **

_ More than anyone, darlin, _

_ You know that I have from the start. _

 

Hunk was harmonizing at this point, and doing it very well, which surprised no one. 

 

_ So build me up  _ **_(BUILD ME UP!)_ **

_ Buttercup, _

_ Don’t break my heart. _

 

As he moved into the verses, it became apparent that no one actually knew them that well. Shiro made a valiant effort regardless:

 

_ “I’ll be over at ten,” _

_ You tell me, something, and then, _

_ I forgot the words, _

_ Forgot the words again. _

 

He looked around for a lifeline, but only got looks that were half-encouraging, half-wicked. Keith was trying to stifle a laugh.

 

_ If anybody can help, _

_ You get a day off from training, _

_ If the Princess _

_ Is okay with that. _

 

“I think it’s a moot point,” Allura giggled.

 

Looking around again, it was clear that no aid was coming to him, so Shiro shrugged and went back to the chorus.

 

_ Why do you build me up (BUILD ME UP!) _

_ Buttercup, baby... _

 

The rest of the presents, incredible as they were, lay forgotten around the room. If the haunted animatronic was going to be jealous, well, that was a tomorrow problem.


End file.
